The Caribbean resort city has seen an increase in violence this year, with 50 executions on record so far. The declaration of a gender alert is also pending as a result of the number of femicides reported.

After barely a month in office, González condemned the conditions in which he found the state police, whose numbers amount to just 500 officers who are equipped with 40 patrol vehicles.

The adjacent state of Yucatán, while it has a population nearly half as large again as Quintana Roo, has at least 8,000 state police, according to Reforma newspaper.

Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez of PAN-PRD is the new governor of Quintana Roo. (PHOTO: periodistasquintanaroo.com)

The situation at the municipal level is similar: “Solidaridad [Playa del Carmen] and Cozumel had zero patrol cars, and Benito Juárez [Cancún, with a population well over half a million people] had 22.”

The governor stated that his administration was working on equipping police departments as well as providing them with the necessary technology, while new police officers are to be hired, he added, with tougher trustworthiness exams.

As to the gender alert, González acknowledged that many people could be scared by it and its impact on tourism, but the issue needed to be addressed in the open and faced head on.

“Some say, ‘why speak about those who murder women?’ It is something that’s happening, even if some prefer not to see it . . . This is an issue that we must heed and resolve.”

The governor also expressed disapproval for the inaction of his predecessor, Roberto Borge Angulo, who “had an entire year to address the matter but never did so, even after receiving specific recommendations.”

Borge was elected under the banner of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, his successor Joaquín under the rival National Action Party.